Small and Neat
Written: Apr 20 '01
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Pros: Small, great sound, good remote, USB, rechargeable battery, dual MMC cards
Cons: Only 32MB supplied as standard
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for an eye-catching MP3 player that sounds good you could do a lot worse than this unit.
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| uk_gizmo's Full Review: LG MF-PD360 (32 MB) MP3 Player |
This is a very small unit measuring about 3 inches square and about half an inch deep. It has a classy look mainly due to its clean lines and angular design. Construction is mainly plastic but quite solid. The player unit has four small round metallic transport buttons on the top side for stop/rew/fwd/play as well as a combined headphone/remote socket and a Hold switch. On one of the side faces are two up/down volume buttons. Whenever a button is pressed a pin-sharp orange LED winks from behind a small diamond-shaped window on the front of the unit.
The player uses the new MultiMedia Card (MMC) memory for storage and comes supplied only with a single 32MB card. If you want any more memory you'll have to buy it yourself. There are two MMC slots accessible through a small door on the side of the player which seem to be happy taking 32MB or 64MB cards.
There is a small USB socket on the side of the unit into which the data transfer cable plugs. The cable fits snugly into this socket and isn't too fiddly to use.
The player is powered by a a chewing gum stick rechargeable battery that slides into the bottom of the unit. This give about 6 hours of play between charges. A separate charger is supplied into which you must clip the battery to charge it. You must remove the battery from the player to charge it, however LG also supply a clip-on AA battery pack for the player which allows you to use a normal AA alkaline battery for power if you forgot to charge the main battery. Using the AA battery together with the rechargeable gives an even longer battery life of about 10 hours. One interesting aspect of the player's design is that it can also be powered purely from the USB cable even if you've removed the battery by using the power from your PC USB connection. This means you needn't flatten your batteries if you're doing lots of PC to player file transfers. You can also listen to music on the player when its plugged into the USB. Basically, there are plenty of options for powering the unit.
The player comes with an in-line remote into which earbud headphones can be plugged. The idea is to set the Hold switch on the main player then put it in your pocket, clip the remote to your shirt and operate the player entirely using the remote. The remote is actually a compact and neat design having a backlit LCD display showing track and album name along with elapsed time and remaining battery life. The remote has a large four-function transport button for play/stop/forward and reverse. By pressing the the play side of the button for a second or two you can quickly change between one MMC card and the other. This is a useful feature. Other functions on the remote are Introscan, 4 equaliser settings, repeat play and backlight. I hardly ever use the controls on the main player unit as the remote is so handy when you're walking around. The one bad point about the remote is that the volume control is a standard analogue thumbwheel which when set to maximum is only the maximum volume according to the current setting of the up/down volume control on the main player. Once you're use to it this becomes a minor inconvenience.
The sound of this player is very good. There's lots of bass weight and a detailed treble without things ever sounding harsh. There's also none of that phasey treble you sometimes get with some cheaper MP3 players. I compared the same MP3 file on this player and the well-reviewed Rio 500 and actually preferred the sound of LG because it seemed weightier and a little more dynamic. There's a reasonable amount of volume on offer to make the earbud phones go very loud, but if you want to use full sized phones you might wish to consider getting efficient ones.
The player will only play MP3 files but supports CBR and VBR. It seems to support ID tags fine. There is no indication in the supplied material that the firmware can be upgraded so don't expect support for additional audio file formats in the future. Luckily though the current firmware seems stable and my unit has never locked up or behaved strangely.
The supplied file transfer software is very simple to use. Transfers are quite quick and reliable using USB and the player can used to store files of any type (not just MP3) which is useful if you need to move large files from a PC at work or school to home. There was no supplied ripping software with my player so you may wish to budget for your favourite software for encoding CDs.
Overall this is a well thought out unit that sounds great. It has one or two weak points but if you're looking for a small unit with a good sound then you could do a lot worse.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
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Epinions.com ID:
uk_gizmo
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Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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